Hanwha Life Esports is going big and bold for the 2023 season.
After news broke of Hanwha Life Esports re-signing Worlds 2021 champion Park "Viper" Do-hyeon from EDward Gaming, that opened the floodgates for what was to come from HLE. Soon after, HLE signed four new players to build around Viper, which includes two members of DRX's Worlds 2022 champion squad, Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo and Hwang "Kingen" Seong-hoon.
As for the last two members, HLE decided to raid both the LPL and the LCK for their jungler and support positions, bringing in Kim "Clid" Tae-min from FunPlus Phoenix as well as Kim "Life" Jeong-min, formerly of KT Rolster. With this being the possible starting lineup for HLE, it would look like Lee "DuDu" Dong-ju will be taking on the substitute role unless he decides to look elsewhere.
By rebuilding their entire roster from scratch, HLE now boasts three players who have won Worlds. The likes of Viper, Zeka, and Kingen will bring some much-needed experience as well as a winning mentality to the organisation that has been at the bottom half of the LCK table over the past few seasons. This year was particularly dreadful for HLE, who finished dead last in both the spring and summer split.
Having missed out on Worlds this season, last year remains to be the org's first and only appearance on the world stage. By adding three world champions to the squad, HLE will be hoping that their international experience will be enough to bring the team to new heights.
Of course, much of the news of HLE's new squad will be the re-signing of Viper. He joined HLE in the middle of the 2020 season and only played during the summer split before leaving to join EDG where he won Worlds the following season. While that season was another one to forget for the organisation, next year is looking to be HLE's year if all things go according to plan.
Hanwha Life Esports
Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon
